Zaffke told Bicycling at the Sea Otter Classic on Wednesday that in making the Havoc bars wider something had to give. “Stiffness, strength, or weight,” he explained. Stiffness, in particular, becomes a challenge when widths grow over 750mm.

Easton borrowed from its motocross handlebars—800mm wide with a 35mm center. The engineers went to work on a bicycle-specific bar and came up with the Havoc 35 system. Easton thinks it’s quite a big deal too—“comparable to Easton’s biggest advances ever,” said Zaffke.

The 35mm Havoc Carbon bar is 800mm wide and weighs only 220 grams, making it the lightest gravity bar on the market, according to Zaffke. Yet it was still 15 percent stronger in Easton’s impact tests; 21 percent stiffer; and 8 percent lighter than the 750mm Havoc Carbon (in 31.8).

The Havoc 35 aluminum bar weighs 300 grams; the stiffness, strength, and weight improvements versus the 31.8mm aluminum are the same as the carbon 35. If 800mm is too wide, Easton provides cutting guides, down to 750mm. (You can’t cut the bar much more than 740mm before space for the controls becomes very tight.)

As for the carbon-versus-aluminum debate, Easton says the Havoc 35 Carbon outperforms the Havoc 35 Aluminum in each attribute: weight—naturally—but also stiffness, impact strength, and fatigue life.

On the stem side, Easton’s offering two Havoc 35 stems. A traditional steerer-clamp stem and a two-piece direct-mount stem with a “crazy-wide stance” that provides an even stiffer interface.

Easton said it is now shipping the Havoc 35 bars and stems.

Standards

There seems to be a bit of "standards fatigue" kicking in across the industry, and Easton acknowledges that.

“If you’re concerned about new standards, don’t do it,” said Zaffke. “We’re still making 31.8mm.”

Be warned, though: Easton is so happy with the performance of the Havoc 35 stuff that it expects the interface to find its way into other bars and stems before long.